LA Bid For 2024 Olympics Up For City Council Vote On Tuesday

The Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to pursue bidding for the 2024 Olympics. A winning bid would be extremely valuable for NBC, which has U.S. broadcast rights to the Games through 2032. If the council gives its approval, the US Olympics Committee could announce within hours that LA has been chosen as the American bid city, the LA Times reported. A council committee reached an agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee on Friday and moved it to the full council for a vote.

City Council approval is by no means assured because of concerns about budget overruns for the Games, which are expected to cost at least $5.8 billion. After Boston’s mayor balked at guaranteeing that city taxpayers would pay for any cost overruns, the USOC entered talks with Los Angeles.

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City Controller Ron Galperin told council members in a letter last week that it would be “imprudent to ask city taxpayers to assume financial risks” associated with the Olympics. The International Olympics Committee usually requires the host city to pick up the tab for cost overruns. Galperin warned against “placing our city in a position wherein we might have to indemnify the U.S. Olympic Committee or any other entity from losses they might incur.”